quillity of their country. Some had thoughts of Mithridates, king of Pontus; others, of Ptolemy, king of Egypt; but the former was actually engaged in a war with the Romans, and the other had always been the enemy of Syria. They therefore determined upon electing Tigranes, king of Armenia, and sent ambassadors to acquaint him with this resolution. He agreed to it, came to Syria, and took possession of the crown, which he wore 18 years. He governed that kingdom 14 years by a viceroy, named Megadates, whom he did not recall from that office till he had occasion for him against the Romans.

Eusebes, being driven out of his dominions by his subjects and Tigranes, took refuge in Cilicia, where he passed the rest of his days in concealment and obscurity. As to Philip, it was not known what became of him. It is probable that he was killed in some action against Tigranes. Selena, the wife of Eusebus, retained Ptolemais, with part of Phoenicia and Cœlosyria, and reigned there many years after, which enabled her to give her two sons an education worthy of their birth. The eldest was called Antiochus Asiaticus; and the youngest, Seleucus Cybiosactes. I shall have occasion to speak of them in the sequel.

Some time after Ptolemy Lathyrus had been replaced upon the throne of Egypt, a considerable rebellion broke out in the Upper Egypt. The rebels, being overthrown and defeated in a great battle, shut themselves up in the city of Thebes, where they defended themselves with incredible obstinacy. It was at length taken, after a siege of three years. used it with so much rigour, that from being the greatest and Lathyrus richest city till then in Egypt, it was almost reduced to nothing.

*Lathyrus did not long survive the ruin of Thebes. To compute from the death of his father, he had reigned 36 years; 11 jointly with his mother in Egypt, 18 in Cyprus, and seven alone in Egypt, after his mother's death. Cleopatra, his daughter, succeeded him, who was his only legitimate issue. Her proper name was Berenice; but by the established custom of that house, all the sons were called Ptolemy, and the daughters Cleopatra.

Sylla, at that time perpetual dictator of Rome, sent Alexander to take possession of the crown of Egypt, after the death of his uncle Lathyrus, as the nearest heir male of the defunct. He was the son of that Alexander, who had put his mother to

* A. M. 3723. Ant. J. C. 81.

death. But the people of Alexandria had already set Cleopar tra upon the throne, and she had been six months in possession of it when Alexander arrived. To accommodate the difference, and not to draw Sylla, the master of Rome, and in consequence dispenser of law to the universe, upon their hands, it was agreed, that Cleopatra and be should marry, and reign jointly. But Alexander, who either did not approve of her for a wife, or would have no associate in the throne, caused her to be put to death 19 days after their marriage, and reigned alone 15 years. Murder and parricide were no longer reckoned as any thing in those times, and might be said to have grown into fashion among princes and princesses.

Soon after, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, died, having first made the Roman people his heirs. His country, by that means, became a province of the Roman empire, as Cyrenaica also did the same year. The Romans, instead of appropriating the latter to themselves, had granted it liberty: 20 years had passed since, during which term sedition and tyranny had occasioned infinite calamities. It is said, that the Jews, who had been long settled there, and composed a great part of the nation, contributed very much to those disorders. The Romans, to put a stop to them, were obliged to accept Cyrenaica, which had been bequeathed to them by the last king's will, and to reduce it into a Roman province.

SECTION VII.

FOMPEY DISPOSSESSES ANTIOCHUS ASIATICUS OF THE KINGDOM OF SYRIA.-TROUBLES IN JUDEA AND EGYPT.

SOME troubles which happened in Egypt,t occasioned by the disgust taken against Alexander, made Selena, the sister of Lathyrus, conceive thoughts of pretending to the crown. She sent her two sons Antiochus Asiaticus and Seleucus, whom she had by Antiochus Eusebes, to Rome, to solicit the senate in her behalf. The important affairs which employed Rome, at that time engaged in a war with Mithridates, and perhaps the motives of policy, from which she had always

A. M. 3928. Ant. J. C. 76.

A. M. 393). Ant. J. C. 73. Cic. vi, in Ver Orat. n. 61. 67.

opposed the kings who were for joining the forces of Egypt with those of Syria, prevented the princes from obtaining what they demanded. After a residence of two years in Rome, and ineffectual solicitations, they set out upon their return into their own kingdom.

The eldest, called Antiochus, resolved to pass by the way of Sicily. He experienced an insult there, which is hardly credible, and shows how much Rome was corrupted in the times we speak of, to what excess the avarice of the magistrates sent into the provinces rose, and what horrid rapine they committed with impunity, and in the sight and with the knowledge of the whole world.

Verres was at that time prætor in Sicily. As soon as he heard that Antiochus was arrived at Syracuse, as he had reason to believe, and had been told, that that prince had abundance of rare and precious things with him, he judged his arrival a kind of rich inheritance fallen to him. He began by sending Antiochus presents, considerable enough, consisting in provisions of wine and corn. He then invited him to supper. The hall was magnificently adorned; the tables set off with all his vessels of the most excellent workmanship, of which he had a great number. The feast was sumptuous and delicate, for he had taken care that nothing should be wanting to make it so. In a word, the king withdrew, well convinced of the prætor's magnificence, and still better satisfied with the honourable reception he had given him.

He invites Verres to supper in his turn; exposes all his riches, multitudes of silver vessels, and not a few cups of gold, set with jewels, after the custom of kings, and especially those of Syria. There was, among the rest, a very large vessel for wine, made out of one precious stone. Verres takes each of these vessels into his hand, one after the other, praises and admires them; the king rejoices that the prætor of the Roman people is so well pleased with his entertainment.

From thenceforth the latter had no other thoughts than how to rifle Antiochus, and send him away fleeced and plundered of all his rich effects. He sent to desire that he would let him have the finest of the vessels he had seen at his house, under pretence of showing them to his workmen. The prince, who did not know Verres, complied without difficulty or suspicion. The prætor sent again, to desire that he would lend him the vessel made of a single precious stone, that he might consider it more exactly, as he said. The king sent him that also:

But to crown all: the kings of Syria, of whom we speak, had carried a branch sconce with them to Rome, of singular beauty, as well from the precious stones with which it was adorned, as its exquisite workmanship. With this they intended to adorn the capitol, which had been burnt during the wars between Marius and Sylla, and was then rebuilding; but that edifice not being finished, they would not leave it bebind them, nor suffer any body to have a sight of it; in order, that when it should appear at a proper time in the temple of Jupiter, the surprise might add to the admiration of it, and the charm of novelty give new splendour to the present. They, therefore, chose to carry it back into Syria, resolving to send ambassadors to offer this rare and magnificent gift, amongst many others, to the god, when they should know that his statue was set up in the temple.

Verres was informed of all this by some means or other; for the prince had taken care to keep the sconce concealed; not that he feared or suspected any thing, but that few people might see it, before exposed to the public view of the Romans. The prætor demanded it of the king, and earnestly begged him to send it him, expressing a great desire to examine it, and promising to let nobody else see it. The young prince, with the candour and simplicity of whose youth the noble sentiments of his birth were united, was far from suspecting any bad design. He ordered his officers to carry the sconce secretly toVerres, well covered from sight; which was done accordingly. As soon as the wrappers were taken off, and the prætor beheld it, he cried out, this is a present worthy of a prince, worthy of a king of Syria, worthy of the capitol; for it was amazingly splendid, from the quantity of fine jewels with which it was adorned, and the variety of the workmanship, in which art seemed to vie with the materials; and, at the same time, of so large a size, that it was easy to distinguish it was not intended to be used in the palaces of men, but to adorn a vast and superb temple.

The officers of Antiochus having given the prætor full time to consider it, prepared to carry it back, but were told by him, that he would examine it more at his leisure, and that his curiosity was not yet sufficiently gratified. He then bade them go home, and leave the sconce with him. They accordingly returned without it.

The king was not alarmed at first, and had no suspicion. One day, two days, several days passed, and the sconce was

not brought home. The prince, therefore, sent to demand it of the prætor, who put it off till the next day; but it was not returned then. At length he applied in person to him, and prayed him to restore it. Who would believe it? that very sconce, which he knew from the prince himself was to be set up in the capitol, and designed for the great Jupiter, and the Roman people, Verres earnestly entreated the prince to give him. Antiochus excusing himself, both from the vow he had made to consecrate it to Jupiter, and the judgment which the many nations that had been concerned in the workmanship of it, and knew for whom it was designed, would pass upon such an action; the prætor began to threaten him in the sharpest terms: but when he saw that his menaces had no more effect than his entreaties, he ordered the prince to quit his province before night, and alleged for his reason, that he had received advice from good hands, that pirates of Syria were about to land in Sicily.

The king upon that withdrew to the public place; and with tears in his eyes, declared, with a loud voice, in a numerous assembly of the Syracusans, calling the gods and men to witness, that Verres had taken from him a sconce of gold, enriched with precious stones, which was to have been placed in the capitol, to be a monument in that august temple of his alliance and amity with the Roman people: that he was not concerned, and did not complain, for the other vessels of gold and jewels, which Verres had from him; but that to see that sconce taken from him by violence, was a misfortune and an affront that made him inconsolable; that though by his own, and the intention of his brother, that sconce was already consecrated to Jupiter, however, he offered, presented, dedicated, and consecrated it again to that god, in the presence of the Roman citizens, who heard him, and called Jupiter to witness to the sentiments of his heart, and piety of his intentions.

Antiochus Asiaticus being returned into Asia, soon after ascended the throne; he reigned over part of the country for the space of four years. Pompey #deprived him of his kingdom, during the war against Mithridates, and reduced Syria into a province of the Roman empire.

What thoughts could foreign nations conceive, and how odious ought the name of Roman to be to them, when they heard it told, that in a Roman province a king had been so grossly abused by the prætor himself, a guest plundered, an

* A. M. 3939. Ant. J. C. 65.